Role of rural youth in agricultural and rural development: A self perceived case study of Okara District, Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Rural youth in Pakistan play very important role in the political, economic and social development of the country. Many Rural Youth Organizations such as Chand tara, Boy Scouting, Girl Guide Movement, Farm Guide Movement and Farm Girl Guide were introduced in Pakistan. But in-spite of all these efforts, Pakistan had no formal system for organizing and training a bulk quantity of its Rural Youth. And it is time to create awareness among our rural youth about new technologies for adoption in the field of agriculture and rural development. Keeping in view the about fact present study was designed in 2008 to ascertain self perceived role of Rural Youth in agricultural and Rural development in District Okara, Punjab, Pakistan. The district comprises three tehsils (sub-division) namely Depalpur, Renala Khurd, Okara. From each tehsil, one union council was selected through simple random technique. Two villages were selected randomly from each selected union council and 25 young males whose ages were in the range of 15 - 25 years were selected randomly from each these selected villages, thus, making a total number of 150 respondents. The data were collected with the help of a specifically designed and pre-tested interview schedule. The results showed that 88.0% of the respondents had an education from primary to matric (tenth examination) and above level. Slightly more than one fourth 28.6, 25.7 and 17.2% of the respondents were labourers, farming, farming and playing respectively. On the basis of conclusions it was recommended that for first of all the educational level of the study area should be increased. To establish the cottage industry in villages so that maximum numbers of Rural Youth get employed there and initiate various agricultural developmental programmes for the betterment of Rural Youth. Key words: Rural development, agricultural technology, rural youth.